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Divine Providence, History, and Progress in Saint Augustine's City of God John A Volume 66:4 October 2002 Table of Contents The Theological Symposia of Concordia Theological Seminary ........................................291 Religious Pluralism and Knowledge of the True God: Fraternal Reflection and Discussion Faculty of Concordia Theological Seminary ....... 295 Doctrine and Practice: Setting the Boundaries David P. Scaer ................................307 Confessing in the Public Square Lawrence R. Rast Jr. ...........................315 Death and Martyrdom: An Important Aspect of Early Christian Eschatology William C. Weinrich ...........................327 Divine Providence, History, and Progress in Augustine's City of God John A. Maxfield ..............................339 Theological Observer ...............................361 Lithuanian Aspirations and LWF Ambitions: In Honor of Bishop Jonas Kalvanas (1949-2003) Revisiting the Missio Dei Concept Looking Behind the Veil . Book Reviews ......................................370 The Character of God in the Book of Genesis: A Narrative Appraisal. By W. Lee Humphreys. ..... Chad L. Bird New Testament Greek Manuscripts: Variant Readings Arranged inHorizontal Lines Against Codex Vaticanus. Matthew. Edited by Reuben Swanson. ..... Charles A. Gieschen The Archaeology of Early Christianity: A Histoy. By William H. C. Frend. ................... Charles A. Gieschen Figured Out: Typology and Providence in Christian Scripture. By Christopher R. Seitz. ................. Chad L. Bird Love Taking Shape Sermons on the Christian Life. By Gilbert Meilaender. .................... Harold L. Senkbeil Shepherd the Church: Essays in Pastoral Theology Honoring Bishop Roger D. Pittelko. Edited by Frederic W. Baue, John W. Fenton, Eric C. Forss, Frank J. Pies, and John T. Pless. ............................. Louis A. Smith Paul Beyond the Judaism/Hellenism Divide. Edited by Troels Engberg-Pedersen. ................. Holger Sonntag The Fing~rintsof God Tracking the Divine Suspect through a Histoy of Images. By Robert Farrar Capon. ................................ Timothy Maschke Indices for Volume 66 ...............................381 Divine Providence, History, and Progress in Saint Augustine's City of God John A. Maxfield Midnight on December 31,1999 came and went without the worldwide disruption of computer systems foretold by seers of the Y2K phenomenon. Fears of the unknown future after Y2K quickly subsided, but they reveal yet again the chronic fascination, even in modern secular cultures, with apocalyptic visions of the uncontrollable demise of civilizations whose enduring stability remains precarious. In the latter decades of the twentieth century secular visions of the apocalyptic destruction of modem civilizationhave ranged from the threat of nuclear annihilation (especially during the confrontational years in relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the first term of President Ronald Reagan) to the prospect of economic collapse (foretold in some circles as the inevitable result of the economic policies of President Bill Clinton). As such visions fail to be realized, it seems chronic in our culture's condition that, far from being laid to rest, they are instead modified or replaced by new fads. These play on the uncertainties of the future and thus aid in the sale of popular books or the raising of funds by various interest groups heavily invested in the political processes of modern democracies. Such are the secular versions of apocalyptic visions that are so prominent especially in the varieties of non-conformist Christianity historically and of conservative evangelical Christianity today. They reveal that Christian fascination with biblical apocalyptic prophecy holds no monopoly on the way fears regarding the uncertain future can be either exploited or used constructively in the promotion of an agenda or in the cementing of the social and ideological identity of a group. And although such fears are perhaps exploited most effectively in times of turmoil or crisis, even in present prosperity the ability for a scenario such as the imminent collapse of technological systems (as in the Y2K phenomenon) to captivate the minds and influence the patterns of economic behavior of a populace testifies to the enduring strength of apocalyptic visions of the future, whether secular or religious. Rev. John Maxfield is a Ph. D. candidate in church history at Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey. He is also Director of the Luther Academy. Marjorie Reeves has written persuasively about the influence of prophecy in history, arguing that "Human beings in general can no more ignore their future than they can lose their past. Thus a theme common to all periods of history is that of attitudes towards the future."' Taking her cue, this essay will examine the occasion and the content of Saint Augustine's magnum opus, the City of God, in the light of Augustine's view of biblical revelation and its relation to his attitude toward the future of his world as it was guided, he believed so strongly, by the providence of God. Our view of Augustine may indeed show that his world is not so different from our own. Augustine1sconfidence in God even in the face of the crisis of his world speaks volumes to our own day, full of preoccupations with and manipulations of human fear in the face of the uncertain future. The sack of Rome by the Visigoth chieftain, Alaric, in A.D. 410 had a significance for Augustine's world that far outweighed the fairly inconsequential material reality of the sack itself. In the aftermath of that event, in provincial towns far away from the city of Rome itself, Augustine preached to Christians who were uncertain of themselves - so Peter Brown describes them at the beginning of his poetic description of this chapter in Augustine's pastoral life.2 "They had boasted of the 'Christian Era,' and now it had coincided with unparalleled disaster^."^ As recently as 404 Augustine had been one of the boasters, so confident was he that in his day the prophetic scriptures were being fulfilled in the conversion of the world: Lately, kings are coming to Rome. A great thing, brothers, in what manner it was fulfilled. When it was spoken, when it was written, nothing of these things was. It is extraordinary! Pay attention and see; rejoice! May they be curious who do not want to give attention to it; for these things we want them to be curious. Let them discover that so many things which they see of late were predicted beforehand. Every age [of individual] has been called to salvation. Every age has already come - every dignity, every level of wealth and human capacity. Soon let them all be inside. Presently a few remain outside and still argue; let them wake up at 'Ma jorie Reeves, The InfIuence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages: A Study in Joachimism (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969), vii. 'Peter Brown, Augus tine of Hippo:A Biography (Eierkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, 1967), 313-329. 'Brown, Augustine, 313. Divine Providence in Saint Augustine's City of God 341 some time or another to the rumbling of the world: the whole world clamor^!^ That whole world clamoring in 404 for pagans to convert to Christianity became, in the aftermath of Alaric's sack of Rome, the clamoring of pagans that Christianity and Rome's forsaking of its gods were to blame for the fall of the "Eternal City." Far from being dead after a generation of Christianization, despite the coercive measures against it under the emperor Honorius beginning in 399, paganism remained alive and well in the early part of the fifth century, as Augustine's rhetorical engagement with paganism in his sermons of the period reveaL5 Peter Brown depicts the cultured pagan aristocrat that would have been the target of Augustine's masterful parlaying of classical literature and philosophy so evident in the City of God. This is "a whole culture running hard to stand still. a strange phenomenon: the preservation of a whole way of life in the present, by transfusing it with the inviolable safety of an adored past."6 Augustine directs his polemic against them not so much by engaging their current practice as by a thorough critique of the history of pagan culture, all the while demonstrating his mastery of the literature of these "fanatical antiquarians."' One of these, Volusianus, had, through Augustine's friend Flavius Marcellinus, made the charge against Christianity quite specifically: in a letter to the Bishop of Hippo, Marcellinus communicated Volusianus's Saint Augustine, Sermo Sancti Augustini cum pagani ingrederentur (Dolbeau Sermon 25/Mayence 61), edited by Francois Dolbeau. "Nouveaux sermons de Saint Augustin pour la conversion des paiens et des donatistes" (I), Revue des etudes augustiniennes 37 (1991):75-76. %ee especially Dolbeau sermons 25 and 26 in Dolbeau, "Nouveaux sermons" (I), Revue des etudes augustiniennes 37:37-77, and (IV), Recherches augustiniennes 26 (l992):69-141. English translation in Saint Augustine, Sermons 11w 1: Newly Discovered Sermons, translated and annotated by Edmund Hill, edited by John E. Rotelle. The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21* Century (Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 1997), 366-386 (Dolbeau 25) and 180-237 (Dolbeau 26). See also Brown, Augustine, 299-312, and Herbert Bloch, "The Pagan Revival in the West at the End of theFourthCentury," The Conpict Between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century, edited by Amoldo Momigliano (Oxford: Clarendon, 1963), 193-218. 6Brown,Augustine, 301. 7Brown, Augustine, 305. See also
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